A piece of IPL history
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Buttler sees them through
What. A. Special. Innings.
Buttler is only in as Impact Sub as he is still recovering from a niggle. Towards the end of this innings he's visibly struggling to make his ground on the twos.
But he muscles the first ball from Chakravarthy for six over long on, then although he has to see out a few dots, manages to drag Royals across the line. This is also his second IPL hundred in the last few weeks!
Sunil Narine hit his own first T20 hundred and also bowled his first three overs without conceding a boundary. But his teammates didn't quite come through with the ball. The KKR faithful at Eden Gardens are visibly gutted.
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Buttler takes it to the last over.
Two sixes and a four off the penultimate over, plus a two, and a single to keep strike. When you need 28 off the last two overs, you could hardly bat out a more perfect over.
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Powell goes off, but Narine pulls it back
The 17th over:
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Narine might be absolutely bossing this game, but Powell knew Royals needed to take plenty off his last over. He pummeled two mighty sixes - down the ground, and over square leg, and a four off the first three balls.
But then Narine is not the kind of bowler who can be bullied, especially at Eden Gardens. He gets Powell lbw - pretty plumb - fifth ball. Powell reviews and burns one.
Trent Boult, the new batter, should have been caught at deep midwicket last ball as well, but was dropped.
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Buttler key in last five overs
It hasn't been a perfectly fluent innings from Jos Buttler, but he's stuck around, and at the end of the 15th over, he has 58 runs off 39 balls. If he's there at the close, Royals will be near that target.
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Narine in a league of his own.
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Chakravarthy's beautiful second over
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You get rid of Aswhin and Hetmyer - who stroked his first ball tamely to cover - you might just have made a decisive blow in the match.
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Four quiet overs
Are Royals digging themselves into a hole? Narine's got two overs left. And for the first time since the earliest overs, Royals' required rate has spiked above their actual run rate.
The last four overs:
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As I'm writing that, R Ashwin has dragged Varun Chakravarthy to deep midwicket where Raghuvanshi has taken an excellent catch diving forward. Royals' troubles deepen. Hetmyer falls first ball too! Uh oh. Six down.
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Narine on God Mode
Though the course of his 109 off 56, Sunil Narine hit 13 fours and six sixes.
In his first nine balls with the ball, Narine has not conceded a single boundary. In the fourth ball of his second over, he also sends a straight ball at middle and off, and hits Dhruv Jurel on the pad. The appeal for lbw is turned down, but Narine is adamant it should be reviewed, and they go for it. Sure enough, he gets it overturned in his favour.
Could you possibly be having a better game?
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Harshit Rana strikes
Just as it seems like Royals are getting ahead in the match, and Riyan Parag especially is getting into his groove, Rana strikes. Parag whips the first Rana ball for six over fine leg off his pads, and then burns him through backward point next ball.
Later in the over though, he tries to clobber another one, and sends it high into the air off his top edge, and Andre Russel tracks it down to get under a tough catch. The game is in the balance.
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Royals reap 76 from the powerplay
Arora's first over might have got Jaiswal out, and Sanju Samson might have been dismissed cheaply too. But Royals have Riyan Parag and Jos Buttler humming now, and are on track to launch a big chase. Arora's third over - the last of the powerplay - went for 23.
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Jaiswal goes early
Jaiswal had a good game last time Royals played, but he's got out cheaply again here, as Impact Sub Vaibhav Arora comes around the wicket, swings it away from leftie Jaiswal, and Venkatesh Iyer pouches the outside edge at slip.
Still, Royals have got away to a decent start in their first two overs.
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Mid innings show
Here are our experts breaking down the KKR innings.
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Rinku Singh finishes strong
Rinku Singh hits some late boundaries to ensure KKR have some momentum in their finish, as he smacks 20 from 9. The story, though, is Sunil Narine. No other batter got past 30 for KKR, but still KKR have got to 223.
All their IPL hundreds have come in this month, too.
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Narine's out. But here's a breakdown of his innings.
Trent Boult took out Narine's leg stump with an inswinging yorker, dismissing the batter for 109 off 56 balls.
But he has done plenty of damage. Here is stats whiz Shiva Jayaraman explaining why he made the best of a lucky start.
"Sunil Narine played false shots to 14 of the first-24 balls he faced in this innings. That’s an extremely chancy start to an innings. Let alone T20 standards, that’s a risky start even by Narine’s own. There have been 319 occasions in the IPL when a batter has played 14 or more false shots in an innings. Only on seven of those occasions have the 14 false shots come before the 24th ball the batter has faced. By that measure, Narine’s start in the match was one of the riskiest in the IPL.
But that start is immaterial now. Narine has hit his maiden T20 hundred, and in that process taken down the main threat in the opposition, hitting Rajasthan Royals’ spin duo for 67 runs from just 18 balls. He hammered five sixes off the two spinners – three off Yuzvendra Chahal and two off R Ashwin. The two had conceded just five sixes between them in the middle overs before today in this IPL from 31 overs. It’s one thing to get lucky, and it’s another to make use of that luck."
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The spinners are out of here
Rajasthan Royals have R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.
103 Runs Ashwin and Chahal gave away in their eight overs.
But Narine has absolutely crushed them tonight.
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Narine gets his first T20 ton!
Incredible stuff from Narine, who has opened the batting for years, but in taking apart Royals' spinners completely tonight, has not only breached his highest ever T20 score (which had been 85), but also scored KKR's third T20 hundred ever. And remember, this is a tournament that began with a spectacular KKR century from Brendon McCullum all the way back in 2008.
Narine crashes two straight sixes and two fours off no less a bowler than Yuzvendra Chahal to get to triple figures off 49 balls. He's put KKR in an incredibly strong situation here.
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Chahal gets Iyer
Rajasthan Royals need a decent period now, and has Chahal started some semblance of a comeback? Shreyas Iyer smokes him for a six over long on, but looking to repeat the feat with a slog sweep, he's struck on the back leg by a ball that would have crashed into middle and off.
Iyer reviews as well, and burns one of KKR's reviews.
Chahal's over:
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Spin is being carted!
59 Number of runs KKR have scored off the five overs of spin bowled by RR by the end of the 12th over.
Rajasthan Royals have arguably the best spin duo of the competition, in R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. But a fellow spinner is taking them down. Sunil Narine has just crashed a six and two fours off Ashwin's last over - the 12th of the innings.
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Raghuvanshi falls
Finally some relief for Rajsathan Royals, as the 81-run partnership between Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi ends. Narine was the star of the stand, but Raghuvanshi played a handy role, hitting 30 off 17 before he top edged a wide-ish Kuldeep Sen delivery to deep third. They've provided KKR a beautiful platform though.
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Narine cracks a fifty
39 Runs Narine scored off the 18 balls he faced between the fifth and 10th over.
Sunil Narine made 12 off 12 to start, but has exploded since then - not just taking toll of the fielding restrictions, but also clearing the boundary as he powers the first half of this KKR innings. 100 off the first 10 overs for the home team.
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30 runs off the last two powerplay overs
Fifth over:
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Sixth over:
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Royals had kept it so tight in the first four overs, conceding only 26. But then Angkrish Raghuvanshi took Trent Boult's third over for 14 runs, hitting three fours.
And then Sunil Narine crashed a tall six off Kuldeep Sen's fifth ball over deep midwicket, then slammed a four down the ground off his sixth.
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Avesh takes a stunning caught and bowled
...And this time doesn't try to poach it from wicketkeeper Samson.
In the last match RR played, Avesh Khan tried to get underneath a catch that should have ideally been left to the wicketkeeper Samson, and the chance was grassed.
This time, when Phil Salt hit a shortish ball low to the left of Avesh, he reached out and grabbed it nicely in his follow through. In the celebration, Samson rips off his glove and gives it to Avesh, who sticks the ball in it and shows it to the dressing room.
It's a sign of a happy team when you can so quickly laugh about your mishaps from the last match.
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Boult keeps the first half of the powerplay quiet
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^^ Trent Boult's two overs so far. There's been some swing, some energy behind the shorter balls, and KKR's batters, who have been outstanding in the Powerplay so far this IPL, haven't been able to get him away - aside for that one four Phil Salt struck.
This is the worth of an experienced new-ball bowler.
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Bishop picks Shreyas Iyer over Sanju Samson
Two young Indian captains headlining clash. Ian Bishop thinks Iyer>Samson.
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Royals will bowl first at Eden Gardens
Royals will feel they have some advantage chasing, particularly as they ran down Punjab Kings' unconvincing score just three nights ago. The last match at Eden Gardens was also won by the team chasing - KKR.
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ESPNcricinfo's live preview show
Our experts break down this top-of the table clash.
Welcome to this big playa clash
Waddup folks. These teams are rolling in wins right now. Rajasthan Royals have 10 points. Kolkata Knight Riders have played one fewer match and has eight. This is as big as the games get early in the season, and fingers, toes, limbs, everything you have crossed, we will have some fireworks. Welcome to ESPNcricinfo's Live Report.
2 The number of matches these teams have collectively lost, after 11 games played.
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